To What Extent had the Position of Black Americans Improved Between 1929 and 1991?
The position of blacks was to change from 1929 to 1991, before this there was the American Civil War which was won by the northern states; this was to stop all black slavery. The war was won by the northern states and slavery was ended, just before 1929 there was mass segregation of blacks in the southern states. Civil rights were to become a major issue in the next 62 years.
The position of blacks in American Society have improved to a certain extent because of various things, there were more black role models than before, these role models were people like Louis Armstrong, Michael Jackson and Mohammed Ali. There was the first black mayor in LA in 1973; there has also been one person running for president that was black, this was Jesse Jackson. There were large contributions from the US government, the passed national acts, such as the “Voting Rights Act” and the ”Civil Rights Act”. More candidates running for election were bring the attention to black civil rights to win more votes, this lead to greater knowledge of the problems so they could be fixed. The Supreme Court helped, it is like the trial of Brown vs. Topeca Board of Education, ended the school segregation in the southern states. Also the segregation of buses was ended by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this also decreased segregation making like better for those who were in the southern states. Black leaders such as Martin Luther King really showed the world about Americas Civil Rights problem, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, which brought world wide attention. Also in the 1968 Olympics with the black salute done by Tommie Smith and John Carlos bought the attention of civil rights to the world again but with a large televised audience. In relation the media coverage was able to reach all areas, this increased public awareness of civil rights. There was a decline in importance on the KKK in all states, the numbers in the KKK began to decline as ethnic groups and whites were becoming more expected. More blacks were now going into higher education, this is shown in 1995 statistics, 59.8% were with further education, but there were only 48.3%.
